Term Dates 2026
Teacher Only Day – Tomorrow Friday 19 June
Term 2 – Monday 20th April – Friday 3rd July
Term 3 – Monday 20th July – Friday 25th September
Term 4 – Monday 12th October – Tuesday 15th December
Please email the office if your children are taking a holiday during the school term. stjoesoffice@stjosephs.co.nz
Term 2 School Attendance Dues are now overdue!
Dues should be paid by Week 5 of every term into our
ASB account: St Joseph’s School (Pukekohe) Board 12-3023-0338374-01 ref: student’s name
These can also be paid at the school office by eftpos or cash.
Thank you to the families who have made the effort to get their dues paid.
The Catholic Character Contribution is a voluntary contribution forwarded to the Catholic Education Services Board. The St Joseph’s Development Trust Contribution is a voluntary contribution which the Trust is extremely grateful to receive. This is used in our school for improvements to our site and facilities. Both of these voluntary contributions are tax-deductible
School Playgrounds
Children should not be playing on the junior or senior playground before or after school unless they are supervised by their parents/caregiver.
Understanding Your Child’s Mid-Year Report
(Please refer to the previous newsletters for Part 1 and Part 2 of Understanding Your Child’s Mid-Year Report for details about the new school report and how student achievement is communicated)
As you are aware our National Curriculum and reporting has been refreshed this year. There have been major shifts toward a highly structured, knowledge-rich approach to education, grounded in the science of learning – how the brain processes and retains information. The Mid-Year reports will be sent home with your child on Thursday 2 July.
This means there have been some big shifts in how we are reporting and what progress and achievement look like. All schools are reporting against the student’s current year level goals. Previously, students had two years to achieve a level of learning, now they have one. You may notice that your child has “dropped” as the new year level content is more difficult. This will be normal. Please stay in contact with your child’s teacher on how you can work together to support your child’s learning.
The number one thing you can do is to ensure your child is on-time for school and attending regularly. Reading is also essential for all students in Years 0-6. This can be done together with a parent or if able, independently. Limiting device use and encouraging play, conversations, outdoor recreation, chores etc is also an excellent way to support your child’s academic progress. Check out the parent portal for other ways that you can support your child’s learning too.
There will be some key vocabulary used in your child’s report that refers to their learning and next steps. Understanding this vocabulary will help you to understand how your child is progressing and how you can help at home.
Phonics Knowledge: refers to a person’s understanding of the physical speech sounds (phonemes) in a language, how they are articulated, and how they relate to the spoken and written structure of words
Phoneme: the smallest individual sound in a spoken word. It is not a letter itself, but rather a single, distinct sound you make when speaking.
Grapheme: the smallest written symbol (or group of symbols) that represents a single spoken sound in a language
Morpheme: the smallest unit of language that carries meaning. If you break it down any further, it loses its meaning entirely. Think of it as a single building block of a word.
Explicit and Implicit Evidence: Explicit evidence is directly stated in the text, leaving no room for confusion or doubt. Implicit evidence, on the other hand, is hinted at or suggested. It requires the reader to use clues and prior knowledge to read between the lines and make an inference.
Supporting Your Child’s Learning
The Ministry of Education is inviting parents and whaanau to help support improvements to their Parent Portal. The Parent Portal is a website designed for parents so they can help their tamariki at home with their learning. The survey should only take a few minutes and will help shape future updates. The survey closes on 20 June. This survey closes this Saturday.
Parent portal survey – Survey Monkey
Helping in the classroom
If you have the time and energy, we welcome parents or grandparents to volunteer to work alongside some of our youngest children for an hour a day. If you are interested, please contact Lesley Wallace – lesleyw@stjosephs.co.nz
Second-Hand Uniform Shop
The Second-hand uniform shop is open on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons 2:30 – 3:00 pm.
All students should be in their winter uniforms. Boys should be in darker winter weight shorts, there are still some boys wearing summer shorts.
New items can be purchased from The Uniform Shoppe on Glasgow Road, Pukekohe
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